It's reality
by nayaftdemi
Summary: DAYA AU. Naya's life is spiralling down without control to the point where she's reached rock bottom. Luckily for her Demi notices her self destruction and steps in to try and help her. And a few secrets are revealed. [Trigger warning for self-harm and eating disorders]


_Sup folks, it's me again. You might remember me from some other stories idk. I've changed my pen name here like 567957 times ooops. So today I'm bringing ya some Daya awesomeness 'cause I totes love them both. I was quite excited about Demi joining glee and now I hardcore ship Dantana, ha! But they're just wasting Demi's talent on that goddamn show putting her on the back, I'm still upset over it. And now we don't even get Dantana.. blah. Anyways enjoy here some angsty but kinda fluffy Daya, yes?_

**Notes**: It contains a lil' bit talk and mentions about eating disorders and self-harming, I'm warning here just to be sure it doesn't trigger anyone_. _

**Disclaimer**: None of this belongs to me but the story, which is completely AU. (Except for a few things)

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**It's reality**

It was all spiraling down in her life, ever since she even agreed to do that PR with the rapper Big Sean. It was supposed to boost up her popularity so then her single and album would hit harder. But that never happened, her fans got angrier and angrier with her to the point where they _left, _or even worse, tweeted her a lot of nasty stuff. And on top of it her managers had pushed her into releasing Sorry, which was an excuse for the good, deep songs she had written. But it was with Sean and it had rhythm so it had played on a lot radios, still she wasn't really fond of that one. But she kept promoting it with a smile glued to her lips. She reached rock bottom though when Cory of all people passed away, that hit harder than the iceberg that sunk the Titanic. Her dear friend had passed away, her fans were turning against her, her album had been delayed by the discography... Seemed like the world was against her and she ended up falling into depression. Not that anyone would notice since she wore a fake smile everywhere, to outsiders she seemed happy; having a new boyfriend, a single out, Glee was going alright... if all, they just assumed that she was sad due to Cory's death. Which was indeed true but so many more factors influenced that. She wished she had Heather and Dianna back at glee, she could use so much their presence... but Hemo had Elijah to look after and Di was always busy with projects. She had to face this all alone and there were days she couldn't even bring herself out of bed in the morning, let alone put on a fake smile and film scenes for glee. But she had to, it was her job.

It was right there on set where someone finally noticed something was off with the brunette and it wasn't only her cast mate's death. Demi had been watching her silently, noticing how fake her smiles were or how her face would turn back into a defeated one whenever she thought no one could see her. She recognized herself in Naya's shoes, she had been there, done exactly that. Pretend she was okay and happy. That's why she took it upon herself to help Naya with whatever she could, living like that was hell; she herself even had to attend rehab.

"Hey little darling", Demi greeted the latina with a cheeky smile, referencing to that first duet they had sung together. "What's up?"

"Oh hey", the brunette tried to smile but it was obvious it reeled of falseness, the other woman didn't mind even if she noticed it right away. "Y'know, fine. Waiting to film the next scene, I think Santana's with Dani so I'm filming with you".

The younger woman nodded and smirked as if it was the most important thing that she had to film with the brunette. "Some Dani awesomeness comin' right up for you!", she joked lightly, testing if she could earn a small chuckle or even a smile from the other woman, but that didn't work.

"Oh..", Naya mumbled, not really focusing on their conversation much, too many things on her head. "It's nice to finally see Santana be happy with a girl", she added to make small chat with the singer, after all she had no blame on what the latina was going through. Demi had been nothing but nice towards her whenever she was on set.

The blue haired singer smiled at her, "Well I'm just excited about playing her love interest", she chuckled and sat down next to her. "So.. can I keep you company 'till we're called in for filming?", she wondered out loud, not sure how Naya would react to that. She mostly passed her time either alone or with Lea and Chris, not that the latina would really talk to either of them a lot.

"Yes, yes, that's fine", another fake smile from Naya as she looked over to Demi. She wished she was as strong as her, she had gone through hell and got back proving everyone she could make it and she did. Now she was crazily successful, with three albums out, millions of fans and loving people around her. While Naya felt like she was empty.

They fell into a comfortable silence with shared looks and smiles, some of them were fake but the blue haired singer got the latina to truly smile, even if they were little, with some of her jokes or crazy stories. They had gotten along fairly quick with each other, which probably was because on Demi's first day on set she had to kiss Naya. Awkward much? So they had talked and became fast friends; also that they weren't that much different from each other. The time for them to film came quicker than they expected when some production assistant called in their names. As they were walking towards the set they used to film the New York scenes Demi placed a hand on Naya's arm and glanced at her with a smile tugging on her lips. "Hey, you wanna hang out tonight? If you're free I mean..."

The older woman was a bit shocked by the offer and thought about it. She had nothing to do really, Sean was out on tour on whatever city she didn't care about, her family was away and her friends were too busy with their lives so she was probably going to spend her night alone at her house; therefore she accepted Demi's offer. "Yeah, I'd like that... Hmm, how about you come over to my house later on today?", she offered.

"Awesome", the singer agreed with a warm smile and they both went to their marks and became their characters. Naya was indeed a talented actress, she went from looking miserable to having a huge smile on her lips being Santana; Demi observed again. She was staring though but could cover it because in the scene they were filming Dani had to stare lovingly at Santana as the latina was telling her about going out on a date.

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_Later on that afternoon..._

Naya was walking nervously around her house, she had tidied up a bit everything as if she really cared about which state her home was but being honest the previous weeks she hadn't really cared if everything was cleaned or not. She didn't feel like moving from her bed. But now that Demi was coming over she had to appear decent at least. She had showered and put on some jeans and t-shirt, nothing too fancy to just hang out with the singer. But something made her be worried about how their evening might end up as, she wasn't looking forward for one of her breakdowns, especially not with the younger woman being there to witness it. And she had a feeling that Demi could see past her walls and her façade of everything's fine. Just as her thoughts were as a tornado over her head someone rang her doorbell.

"Hey little darling", Demi's voice filled the silence when Naya opened the door, it had become usual that the singer would refer to the older woman as little darling due to Santana and Dani. "Lookin' good over there", she complimented.

"Thanks.. come on in", Naya's cheeks turned a soft shade of red at the compliment and let her in as she closed the door. She led her to the couches on the living room. "You want anything to eat or drink?", she asked politely.

Demi shook her head, "Nah I'm fine", she smiled as Naya sat beside her, somewhat shy now being right there with her. She decided not to press on what she really wanted to talk about with the latina for now and settled for talking about glee, their characters, her up coming Neon Lights tour, Naya's debut album and a million more things. Making it seem that the brunette was actually opening up and talking more and more with the singer, at least a bit of progress. But it came the fatal moment when Demi decided to press onto what was going on on Naya's life. "Hey... umm, this is difficult to ask but.. are you okay? And I mean for real. I mean I know you're really sad about Cory... but there's something else eating you inside. You know I've been there... slowly falling down with no one to catch me..."

Naya's eyes said it all, she had been caught and she had no idea how to get out of that situation. It all became too much, she didn't want to make Demi feel sorry for her nor disappointing her... Tears gathered on her eyes and threatened to fall. "I- I can't- I'm just- I'm sorry", a single tear rolled down her cheek and she choked out the words and got out of there as soon as she could, of course going to her bedroom upstairs.

Demi was left on the living room cursing herself for making Naya trigger like that and ran off. She didn't know if she just should go or try and see how the latina was, even if she shouted her to go away. Sighing the blue haired woman walked upstairs and saw the door closed, figuring it would be the other woman's bedroom; she knocked on the door slowly and waited but no response came from it so she tried again. "Naya come on... open the door please, let me help you...", she pleaded.

Silence washed over them for a few more minutes until the door opened, letting Demi spot where Naya had curled into a ball again, her eyes red and puffy, dry tears on her cheeks and her body trembling. "Oh my God honey...", she couldn't help herself from shuffling closer and caressing her arms. "It's okay, it's okay...", she soothed.

Naya didn't hold back or tried to keep it together any longer and let herself cry on Demi's shoulder, tears damping the singer's shirt but she didn't mind it one bit. "D-Demi... it's just so- so hard...", she choked out between sobs.

The blue haired girl held her closer to her own body and pressed a feather-like kiss on top of her head. "Shhh honey, let it all out and then we can talk about it yes?", she explained softly.

They stayed like that for what seemed like hours until Naya calmed down but stayed crawled up onto Demi's lap almost. She wasn't sure if she could tell the younger woman about everything that had been going on in her life that made her miserable to that extreme point. She didn't feel like she had enough strength to face it all and open up to someone, she hadn't in such a long time. Naya left her safe spot onto Demi's neck and looked at her, so strong, so beautiful, so full of hope. "I'm fine", she lied, she was weak.

"Don't lie to me Naya...", the blue haired woman sighed while caressing her back softly. "I know something's up, we don't have to talk about it but- I think you should trust someone. I dunno", she explained her point, trying to make her understand she had her all along.

The latina stayed dead silent for a few minutes until she broke it by sighing. "It's just... everything's been awful these past months... and not just about Cory's passing- although that probably hit me harder than the other stuff", she gathered her strength and tried not to break down again being strong enough to tell it all to Demi. "I should be happy. A fiancé, a single, future album, Glee's doing well... but I'm just... not"

Demi listened to all her words and nodded here and there. She caressed the brunette's cheek softly and smiled encouraging her to keep going. She was doing really good. "And... why makes you not be happy?"

"They hate me Demi!", she shrieked out, clearly upset at the thought and tears threatened to fall again. "My fans... they hate this new person I've apparently become. And no one cares about me anymore...", she got up from the bed and stared at the blue haired singer through the body length mirror she had in her room. "They tweet me I'm fake, that I'm a slut..."

Demi moved up from the bed and stood right behind Naya with a hand on her shoulder. "You're not any of those things... you're beautiful", she said sincerely.

The latina slowly raised the shirt she was wearing, revealing just how thin she really was. It was obvious and everyone had noticed that she had lost quite an amount of weight but Demi now could tell it was more than it looked like. "Oh Naya...", she whispered sadly as her eyes darted over her pronounced hip bones and reached a temblorous hand to touch her skin, feeling straight away the thinness. Then she noticed something else.

"I- I didn't want to...", Naya choked out, tears falling freely down her cheeks. "But... my publicist and whole team told me I had to lose weight, that I'd be more famous, it'd be better for my career... that _I _would like Sean more if I was skinnier...", she shook her head, she was ashamed she got herself involved in all this.

Demi felt something constrict her chest with pain and sadness for the latina, she had felt trapped like that as well. And seeing her in such a delicate state made her want to hold her forever and murder whoever had done this to her. "It's okay honey... you can go back to how you looked before", she mumbled next to her ear, she herself had gotten over her weight issues so she knew Naya would too. She'd help her all the way through if necessary. She brushed with her fingertips the skin that was covered with almost imperceptible scars and Demi knew exactly what Naya had done. "You need to stop this... Please", her voice was broken as memories flooded back to her, her own scars. Now battle scars, forever a reminder of how messed up everything can get. "Promise me something... if- if you feel like you wanna do this again", she signaled, brushing her fingers over them again, "you call me okay? I'll come over or whatever but please just don't do it".

Naya turned around and hugged Demi as tight as she could, her face buried on the crook of her neck. Feeling oddly safe being in that position with the singer. After all she was the only one to worry about her, the only one to notice. "Thank you", she whispered against her skin. "For just... noticing"

The younger woman held her close to her and soothed her once again as she moved her fingers through the older woman's dark locks. "Don't worry, everything will go back to normal. With time.", she assured her.

Naya brushed her nose against her neck and then shuffled back to be able to look at Demi's eyes. She smiled weakly, but a true smile nonetheless, at her and brushed her fingertips over the singer's cheeks. She was so grateful to have her on her life, who knows how she would have ended up if Demi didn't come into her life to help her stop it all. She leaned in slowly, her lips parted and her eyes sparkling. Her lips brushed against Demi's in a soft kiss, kissing her gently, just out of love and gratitude. And being a little honest, Naya did like her in _that_ way. Having the singer help her with all this triggered her buried feelings for her, she had that attraction and little crush on her ever since she came onto the glee set. The blue haired woman was shocked to say the least but didn't jump away, she reciprocated the kiss slowly, letting Naya know she was alright with all this.

The latina took a deep breath after they broke apart their kiss, her cheeks heating up for being straightforward and kissing her. "I've- I've had a crush on you since like forever", she mumbled shyly, avoiding all eye contact with the other woman.

Demi smiled warmly at her and bit back a laugh, caressing her cheeks softly and pressed another feather-like kiss to her lips. "I do like you too", she blurted out. She always thought the brunette was beautiful and incredible. "But first things first little darling, your recovery is more important", she explained seriously but with a smile still glued to her lips. "And you're not alone anymore, it's reality."

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_Thanks for reading and don't forget to review, cheers!_


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